HungaryAttila Kisbenedek—AFP/Getty ImagesPublic discontent with Socialist Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany’s management of the economic crisis and widespread unease about a $26 billion IMF-led rescue package triggered major changes in Hungarian politics in the spring of 2009. Gyurcsany announced in March that he would stand aside, and Economy Minister Gordon Bajnai became prime minister in mid-April. Bajnai accepted only a symbolic salary of 1 forint (the Hungarian currency) for taking on this crisis-management role but said that he would step down after the general elections in the spring of 2010. Gyurcsany initially remained the leader of the Socialist Party but later resigned from that post too and disappeared from politics.

Bajnai inherited an economy on the verge of collapse, a public debt standing at 77% of GDP, and a set of strict IMF conditions. The forint had lost 20% of its value against the euro, which made it difficult for the government to service its foreign-currency-denominated debt. The financial crisis also directly affected the 1.7 million citizens—more than a sixth of the population—who had taken out foreign-currency mortgages and loans.

A nonparty technocrat himself, Bajnai created a government of experts, cut ministerial salaries by 15%, and announced an austerity program, which included radical cuts in all areas of public spending and a reform of the health care, pension, and education systems. He overhauled the tax system by cutting personal income tax rates and employers’ social security contributions and by increasing the value-added tax (VAT) and excise and business taxes. His government also introduced a new “wealth” tax on property and luxury items. Although Hungary’s credit ratings were downgraded in the spring, Bajnai’s achievements later eased investors’ fears about the country’s prospects for riding out the global financial crisis.

In the June European Parliament elections, the opposition Fidesz–Hungarian Civic Alliance (widely known as Fidesz), which was critical of the new government, secured a sweeping 56% of the vote. As in other European Union countries, voter turnout was low, at 36%. The governing Socialists received only 17% of the vote, while the SzDSz–Hungarian Liberal Party captured only 2% in the balloting and thus no seats, which signaled a likely end to that party’s 20-year history. The opposition Hungarian Democratic Forum (MDF) gained just over 5% of the vote.

The biggest election surprise was the success of the far-right fringe party Jobbik, which had campaigned on an anti-Jewish and anti-Roma (Gypsy) platform. Supported by a mix of far-right and disillusioned Socialist voters, Jobbik won 15% of the vote and became the most popular extremist party in Hungary since the fall of communism in 1989, even though no powerful politicians or public figures were associated with it.

A disconcerting shift toward extremism in Hungary was also indicated by a string of attacks on the country’s Roma community and growing public support for the Jobbik-allied paramilitary organization known as the Hungarian Guard. The black-uniformed group was banned during the summer by a Budapest court but was later reconstituted under a different name.

In the autumn bilateral relations between Slovakia and Hungary hit rock bottom after the Slovak parliament approved amendments to its state language law that criminalized the use of minority languages, including Hungarian, in public. All of Hungary’s parliamentary parties condemned the law, and Bajnai’s government turned to Brussels for help in defending the rights of Slovakia’s Hungarian-speaking community, which made up some 10% of the population.

As exports to the European Union collapsed and industrial production plummeted, GDP contracted by 7%. Unemployment rose to more than 10%. Though no banks collapsed, the Bajnai government spent more than 3% of GDP on bank bailouts and loan-guarantee programs.

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